The United States has relaxed most of the Covid-19 restrictions in many parts for a long time. But since then, the Covid-19 cases have also started to increase. It is feared that the US is moving towards its second-largest wave, which may have already begun, reports the Guardian.
Second-largest COVID wave?
The country reported a huge number of cases while the pandemic was at its peak and was also one of the worst affected countries, with a large number of deaths being reported due to the infection.
In a matter of weeks, the BA.5 version of Covid-19 has become the predominant variant of the virus in the country.
The BA.5 variant can spread faster than other variants around the world. The infection rate is very high, which may lead to more problems.
It is one of Omicron’s sub-variants. It is similar to the Ba 2 variant from last year but has its own mutations. Its spread depends on the population’s immunity.
BA.5 variant
The BA.5 variant may pose the biggest threat to immune protection yet in the US.
The BA.5 variant accounted for nearly 54 percent of Covid-19 cases in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The BA.4 variant accounted for 17% of the total.
The variants have also been shown to evade protection from vaccination and previous infections. The symptoms vary from person to person. While some have a high fever, headache, runny nose, cough, etc., some show no symptoms at all.
According to a report by The Guardian, Jason Salemi, who is an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of South Florida’s College of Public Health said, “Covid-19 is very clearly not over. We’re seeing dramatic increases in the number of cases and hospitalisations in many places throughout the United States”.
“BA.4 and 5 are potentially the variants that can break through immunity the easiest. They are capable of reinfection and we’re headed in a bad direction”, he added.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than one in three Americans live in a county at medium risk from Covid, and one in five are at high risk. This is the highest proportion of the country facing risks since February.
Booster is important
Though hospitalisations were fewer earlier, they have increased as the cases have started to rise. Usually, people in their old age were hospitalised, but now hospitalisations are continuing for all ages.
Salemi also said that “the first and second booster is very important”.
However, only 34 percent of people in the US have received their booster doses. While after that the second booster dose has been taken by a very less number of people.
The US government as well as the citizens need to take some necessary precautions to prevent further spread of the infection and take the booster doses as well.
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Source: The Guardian
